with the nation in this affair. And first, the coming of the Pretender will at once put us all out of debt. These abomination Whigs, and these bloody wars, carried on so long for little or nothing, have, as is evident to our senses now (whatever it was all along), brought a heavy debt upon the nation; so that if what a known author lately published is true, the government pays now almost six millions a year to the common people for interest of money; that is to say, the usurers eat up the nation, and devour six millions yearly; which is paid, and must be paid now for a long time, if some kind turn, such as this of the coming of the Pretender, or such like, does not help us out of it. The weight of this is not only great, insuperably great, but most of it is entailed for a terrible time, not only for our age, but beyond the age of our grandchildren, even for ninety-nine years. By how much the consideration of this debt is intolerable and afflicting to the last degree, by so much the greater must the obligation be to the person who will ease the nation of such a burden; and therefore we place it among the principal advantages which we are to receive from the admission of the Pretender, that he will not fail to rid us of this grievance, and by methods peculiar to himself deliver us from so great a burden as these debts are now, and, unless he deliver us, are like to be to the ages to come. Whether he will do this at once, by remitting most graciously to the nation the whole payment, and consequently take off the burden brevi manu, as with a sponge wiping out the infamous score, leaving it to fall as fate directs, or by prudent degrees, we know not, nor is it our business to determine it here. No doubt the doing it with a jerk, as we call it, comme un coup de grace, must be the most expeditious way; nay, and the kindest way of putting the nation out of its pain; for lingering deaths are counted cruel; and though un coup d'éclat may make an impression for the present, yet the astonishment is soonest over; besides, where is the loss to the nation in this sense? Though the money be stopped from the subject on one hand, if it be stopped to the subjects on the other, the nation loses or gains nothing. We know it will be answered that it is unjust, and that thousands of families will be ruined, because they who lose will not be those who gain. But what is this to the purpose in a national revolution? Unjust! Alas! is that an argument? Go and ask the Pretender!

Does not he say you have all done unjustly by him? and since the nation in general loses nothing, what obligation has he to regard the particular injury that some familes may sustain? And yet farther, is it not remarkable that most of the money is paid by the cursed party of Whigs, who from the beginning officiously appeared to keep him from his right? And what obligation has he upon him to concern himself for doing them right in particular, more than other people? But to avoid the scandal of partiality, there is another thought offers to our view, which the nation is beholding to a particular author for putting us in mind of: if it be unjust that we should suppose the Pretender shall stop the payment on both sides, because it is doing the Whigs wrong, since the Tories, who perhaps, being chiefly landed men, pay the most taxes; then, to keep up a just balance, he need only continue the taxes to be paid in, and only stop the annuities and interest which are to be paid out. Thus both sides having no reason to envy or reproach one another with hardships, or with suffering unequally, they may every one lose in proportion, and the money may be laid up in the hands of the new sovereign, for the good of the nation. . . .

This amassing of treasure, by the stopping the funds on one hand, and the receiving the taxes on the other, will effectually enable the Pretender to set up and effectually maintain that glorious and so often desired method of government, au coup de canon, . . Anglice, a standing army. . . . Then we should see a new face of our nation, and Britain would be no more a naked nation, as it has formerly been; then we should have numerous and gallant armies surrounding a martial prince, ready to make the world, as well as his own subjects, tremble. Then our inland counties would appear full of royal fortifications, citadels, forts, and strong towns, the beauty of the kingdom, and awe of factious rebels. It is a strange thing that this refractory people of ours could never be made sensible how much it is for the glory and safety of this nation that we should be put into a posture of defence against ourselves. It has been often alleged that this nation can never be ruined but with their own consent: if then we are our own enemies, is it not highly requisite that we should be put in a position to have our own ruin prevented? And that, since it is apparent we are no more fit to be trusted with our own liberties, having a natural and a national propen

sity to destroy and undo ourselves, and may be brought to consent to our own ruin, we should have such princes as for the future know how to restrain us; and how reasonable is it to allow them forces to do so! . . .

This sums up the happiness of the Pretender's reign. We need not talk of security, as the Review has done, and pretend he is not able to give us security for the performance of anything he promises. Every man that has any sense of the principles, honor, and justice of the Pretender, his zeal for the Roman Catholic cause, his gratitude to his benefactor, the French King, and his love to the glory and happiness of his native country, must rest satisfied of his punctually performing all these great things for us. To ask him security would be not to affront him only, but to affront the whole nation; no man can doubt him; the nature of the thing allows that he must do us all that kindness; he cannot be true to his own reason without it. Wherefore this treaty executes itself, and appears so rational to believe, that whoever doubts it may be supposed to doubt even the veracity of James the Just. . . .

A JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR

BEING OBSERVATIONS OR MEMORIALS OF THE MOST REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES, AS WELL PUBLIC AS PRIVATE, WHICH HAPPENED IN LONDON DURING THE LAST GREAT VISITATION IN 1665

WRITTEN BY A CITIZEN WHO CONTINUED ALL THE WHILE IN LONDON. NEVER MADE PUBLIC BEFORE

1722

[This work is the most famous unless we regard Robinson Crusoe as of the same class of the fictitious narratives which Defoe issued under the guise of personal memoirs. It appeared at the time when a recurrence of the plague was feared, and seemed so authentic that at a later time it was quoted as an authority by Dr. Mead, who had been appointed to make a report on precautions in the interest of the public health. The Journal is not divided into chapters or sections; the extracts here given will be found on pages 11-18, 75-80, and 102-104 of the Temple edition.]

I NOW began to consider seriously with myself concerning my own case, and how I should dispose of myself; that is to say,

whether I should resolve to stay in London or shut up my house and flee, as many of my neighbors did. I have set this particular down so fully, because I know not but it may be of moment to those who come after me, if they come to be brought to the same distress, and to the same manner of making their choice; and therefore I desire this account may pass with them rather for a direction to themselves to act by than a history of my actings, seeing it may not be of one farthing value to them to note what became of me.

I had two important things before me: the one was the carrying on my business and shop, which was considerable, and in which was embarked all my effects in the world; and the other was the preservation of my life in so dismal a calamity as I saw apparently was coming upon the whole city, and which, however great it was, my fears perhaps, as well as other people's, represented to be much greater than it could be.

The first consideration was of great moment to me. My trade was a saddler, and as my dealings were chiefly not by a shop or chance trade, but among the merchants trading to the English colonies in America, so my effects lay very much in the hands of such. I was a single man, 't is true, but I had a family of servants whom I kept at my business; had a house, shop, and warehouses filled with goods; and, in short, to leave them all as things in such a case must be left, that is to say, without any overseer or person fit to be trusted with them, had been to hazard the loss not only of my trade, but of my goods, and indeed of all I had in the world.

I had an elder brother at the same time in London, and not many years before come over from Portugal, and advising with him, his answer was in three words, the same that was given in another case quite different, viz., "Master, save thyself." In a word, he was for my retiring into the country, as he resolved to do himself with his family; telling me what he had, it seems, heard abroad - that the best preparation for the plague was to run away from it. As to my argument of losing my trade, my goods, or debts, he quite confuted me. He told me the same thing which I argued for my staying, viz., that I would trust God with my safety and health, was the strongest repulse to my pretensions of losing my trade and my goods. "For," says he, "is it not as reasonable that you should trust God with the

chance or risk of losing your trade, as that you should stay in so eminent a point of danger, and trust Him with your life?"

I could not argue that I was in any strait as to a place where to go, having several friends and relations in Northamptonshire, whence our family first came from; and particularly, I had an only sister in Lincolnshire, very willing to receive and entertain me.

My brother, who had already sent his wife and two children into Bedfordshire, and resolved to follow them, pressed my going very earnestly; and I had once resolved to comply with his desires, but at that time could get no horse; for though it is true all the people did not go out of the city of London, yet I may venture to say that in a manner all the horses did; for there was hardly a horse to be bought or hired in the whole city for some weeks. Once I resolved to travel on foot with one servant, and, as many did, lie at no inn, but carry a soldier's tent with us, and so lie in the fields, the weather being very warm, and no danger from taking cold. I say, as many did, because several did so at last, especially those who had been in the armies in the war which had not been many years past. And I must needs say that, speaking of second causes, had most of the people that traveled done so, the plague had not been carried into so many country towns and houses as it was, to the great damage, and indeed to the ruin, of abundance of people.

But then my servant, whom I had intended to take down with me, deceived me; and being frighted at the increase of the distemper, and not knowing when I should go, he took other measures, and left me; so I was put off for that time. And one way or other, I always found that to appoint to go away was always crossed by some accident or other, so as to disappoint and put it off again; and this brings in a story which otherwise might be thought a needless digression, viz., about these disappointments being from Heaven.

I mention this story also as the best method I can advise any person to take in such a case, especially if he be one that makes conscience of his duty, and would be directed what to do in it; namely, that he should keep his eye upon the particular providences which occur at that time, and look upon them complexly, as they regard one another, and as all together regard the question before him; and then, I think, he may safely take